GALVESTON, Texas – Donald Wayne Waters, 44, has been sentenced to 151 months in prison for receipt of child pornography, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today.

The investigation began when the Beaumont Police Department, using peer‐2‐peer software, discovered an IP address registered to Donald Wayne Waters of Winnie, Texas, sharing images and videos of child pornography. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) Cyber‐Crimes Division assumed the investigation and executed a search warrant at Water’s address. At that time, they discovered a large volume of child pornography during an onsite preview of the computers in his home. A subsequent forensic analysis of the computer resulted in the discovery of approximately 604 digital images and five videos that depicted children engaging in lewd exhibitions of the genital, sexual intercourse and deviant sexual acts.

As part of the documents in support of his guilty plea on the plea on Nov. 21, 2011, Waters admitted to searching for and downloading child pornography from the Internet and possessing hundreds of images and videos of child pornography. He also admitted that he had six or eight child pornography websites saved as “favorites” on his computer.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, who handed down the sentence today, also ordered he serve a 10-year-term of supervised release. Waters will also be required to register as a sex offender. Waters has been in custody and will be transferred to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by ICE-HSI as part of Operation Predator. The prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov./

ICE-HSI investigated with the assistance of the Beaumont Police Department. The case was prosecuted by former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Demetrius Bivins and Assistant United States Attorney Sherri Zack handled the sentencing today.